Sunday, April 11, 2010

The new trend now is for businesses to go green, or at least participate and support in campaigns to be environmentally friendly. One common campaign is the No Plastic Bag Day. Yes, it is undeniable that plastics are generally not biodegradable, and throwing them all around may cause environmental problems. However, I must say that it is still impossible to go without plastic bags. Simple reason, without them, how to throw rubbish? It'll be so messy to just dump the trash in a bin without a bag-probably worse health hazards due to unhygienic conditions.

It is very common in Western countries for people to bring their own shopping bags. But in Malaysia, I observe that many people are still used to getting plastic bags as we may not remember to bring along a shopping bag all the time. In Taiwan, no plastic bags are given at all, but they are fair too as you only need to pay about 10 cents to get a plastic bag.

I went to a mall in Kuching, and they have this no plastic bag day three times a week. However, from my observations, many people did not remember at all or they probably seldom visit that place. The customers who went to the cashier all did not have shopping bags. When you pay at the counter, there won't be any plastic bags and you'll have to buy the 'environmental' bag if you have a few items. I'm not sure how much it costs but at least a few RM.

I saw this family that bought one whole trolley of things, imagine how many environmental bags they would have to purchase to carry the stuff. It's ridiculous. Instead of giving any plastic bags, the family had to wheel the trolley out and search for some boxes to put in their stuff.

Well, I know various business organizations have to appear to go green but being practical is obviously important too. If I were that family and it was my first time, I don't think I would return. In my opinion, companies have to learn to bend the rules to retain customer satisfaction. After buying so much stuff, can't they be given at least some bags? Though its No Plastic Bag Day, consider the practical side of how customers would view your company. If companies stick to hard and fast rules, they are certainly losing sight of their most important priority, that is customers. Every experience counts, and once customers have an unpleasant situation, they will leave and not only that, they will tell others too.

I believe plastics are still an indispensable material in life. We can be careful on our use of plastic, like recycling the plastic bags for other things, and disposing them off appropriately. I think that this works better than supermarkets depriving customers of plastic bags. Even if none are given, sell them at a price that does not penalize customers, like Taiwan-10 cents.